Montana Articles

Answering Forward Montana's and MontPirg's Candidate Questions

9/28/2017

Speaking Truth to Power

9/28/2017

Kalispell

A big reason I’m the most visited political blog in Montana is because I tell you what I think.

I wasn’t always the most visited, but the formerly-leading sites really went off the cliff.

I just kept on keeping on, doing the same thing I had been.

And more people found out about it. And they like it.

So here’s some more straight talk, you know…the kind you’ve been thinking but didn’t feel was appropriate to say.

(As if anyone cares, least of all the dumb fucks that created the problems)

((Hint: Those dumb fucks are us)).

An Education

I see that Melissa Romano has been named Montana’s Teacher of the Year.

This is a complete sham.

You’ll remember that Romano lost the OPI race to Elsie Arntzen last November. This award is her consolation prize.

Wait…’consolation prize’…where have we heard that before?

Oh…yeah…that’s right – when Quist was running against Gianforte. One of Quist’s favorite talking points was that this federal office would not be Gianforte’s ‘consolation prize.’

Seems Gianforte got his, and now the Dems have theirs.

I think the main requirement for getting the Teacher of the Year award is that you abandon your students for half a year while you run for office.

Another requirement is that you illegally coordinate with Eric Feaver…which Melissa Romano did.

Usually I’d think such a bogus political move like this would hurt someone like Romano, but then I remember she lives in Helena, and in a safe ‘D’ district.

She’ll have no problem getting elected to the legislature this year. And she’ll have no hope of ever getting elected to a statewide office.

Melissa…what are you thinking accepting this politically-motivated award?

My respect for you is gone, as are my votes for you in the future. Just another puppet on a string. Very sad.

A Fever Pitch

While we’re on the subject...how about Eric Feaver?

Gets paid $125,000 a year, gets to pick who he wants to be Teacher of the Year, and he gets to keep his job no matter how many of his union members lose theirs.

Montana union members will lose their jobs, too – they’re state workers.

Cuts are on the line. I have no problem with this.

I remember about a year ago when I went up to the Montana Historical Society and dug into their biographical folders.

I pulled up Eric Feaver, and the only thing they had on him was an article from 2014/15 about him going to Vietnam and getting a bunch of rabies shots.

Nothing else on the highest paid member of MEA-MFT, how he got that job, or what he does.

It’s a big reason I have no problem with state employee cuts, and it’s why I have no problem with those cuts starting at the Historical Society.

The reason?

They do such a bad job.

The Montana Historical Society does a very, very shitty job.

I’ve chastised them on this many, many times. I’ve told it to their face when I was researching the Yellowstone Pipeline and I’ve told it to their face in regards to Feaver.

The staff simply doesn't care.

Worse, they blame this lack of work on people that held their jobs before they did.

That’s actually what I heard – ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have a lot of news clippings on the Yellowstone Pipeline because the guy that was here before me just didn’t clip them.’

I have no problem with state workers losing their jobs.

They’re not doing their jobs now.

Give Me Those Tax Cuts!

I’m excited about Trump’s tax cuts.

I mean…are you fucking kidding me? I won’t have to pay any taxes on the first $24,000 of my and my wife’s earnings?

Wow!

That means we’d only be paying taxes on $6,000…considering we jointly made about $30,000 last year.

I love this.

Hey – I’m having the best month of the year right now, making more than I have in any month. The reason for this is that I get up each day and go to work.

It’s amazing what this can do for your problems. Just seems to make ‘em go away! If only we had more people in Montana working (as if).

On top of this the estate tax is gone!

Boy, when my grandpa was dying up in Havre, we were really worried about this. It was the early-2000s and the law hadn’t been changed.

My grandpa knew this, and he hung on for a couple more years. It meant that our family – or more precisely, his 5 kids – got to keep a whole lot more money.

Democrats are very, very angry about this.

To them, a farmer that worked the Hi-Line for his whole life shouldn’t be able to give that money to his kids.

Instead that money should go to Uncle Sam.

That way it can be used to fund our never-ending wars and who knows what else.

I mean…get real. Would you rather have the government have your money to spend, or would you rather have it to spend as you like?

If you’re a poor shmuck that refuses to work, then you’d want the government to have it.

If you get up each day with an alarm clock so you can support your family, then you’d want it.

And that’s why Trump won.

Tester’s Charade

I feel sorry for Montanans, and Democrats in Montana.

They think that by electing Tester to a third term, it’ll actually help them.

Personally, I can’t think of one thing Tester has done to change my life. Now, if I was a poor shmuck or maybe a veteran, then yes, I could say something.

Tester’s goal is to take from those that are successful to give to those that aren’t. This includes all the people that were dumb enough to actually join the military.

I feel sorry for those folks.

I mean…don’t you have eyes?

I knew as far back as middle school in the mid-90s that you did not want to join the military. You’ll get your leg blown off in a rich man’s war, and then your own government won’t care about you.

Tons of young people were too stupid to see this, and they went ahead and joined the military and got fucked up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You and I will never stop paying for this.

It’s a big reason I went ahead and filled out the FEC papers to run against Jon Tester next year. Sure, coming up with the $1,700 will be tough…but what the hell?

Anyone with eyes can see that Tester ain’t winning next year. A big reason for that is he’s not a progressive. He’s a Wall Street Democrat. I’d go so far as to say a Bourbon Democrat of old.

Montanans still have 6 months to find a viable candidate that can beat Troy Downing. Tester ain’t that candidate.

What I especially shake my head at is the money he’s raised, the ads he’s running. Montanans don’t care about this.

They care about straight talk, no jive.

Tester can’t deliver that.

He’ll lose next year. I won’t be voting for him, that’s for sure.

It’s Done Well

Democrats want more of your money.

The main reason is that we have a lot of poor schmucks that aren’t able to take care of themselves, so you need to go to work for 40 hours a week and then fork over some of those earnings to get the job done.

Kind of makes you resentful, huh?

Don’t tell that to Mary Ann Dunwell.

She wants you to give up more of your money in taxes so we can help people that can’t help themselves.

This includes “people with disabilities and mental illness, seniors, child care workers, parents, public school teachers, counselors, University professors, students, direct care workers, health care providers, public sector employees, friends and neighbors.”

Most of the people she lists off can help themselves…by moving to another state.

Montana simply isn’t right for teachers, doctors, professors, care workers and others like that.

They can make more money elsewhere. Hell, we know that Montana starting teachers make the lowest salaries in the nation. Eric Feaver likes it this way.

I could give a fuck about the egghead-professors at the university. Most are making 2-3 times as much as I am each year. (And they can't get by?)

Counselors? If there was ever a more asshole-on-elbow, waste-of-a-life kind of job, I think counselor would be right up there.

We all know the high school guidance counselor jokes. The real joke is that anyone would actually want to waste their life doing this ‘job.’

Don’t even get me started on drug counselors and how they milk a problem to benefit their own lives.

Students can go fuck themselves, but then they already went ahead and did that by (1) buying into the college-will-help-you myth and (2) taking out student loans to perpetuate that myth.

I could care less about public sector employees.

Oh…was I supposed to? These are the guys making twice as much as me for half the work…and they get holidays off, retirement, benefits, and even sick leave, right?

Fuck them.

I’d love to see a few state workers join me in the private sector for a night. Actually, I wouldn’t – they’d be too slow, ask too many questions, and wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand.

Hey – I’ve worked for the State of Montana. I know how it works…or more appropriately, doesn’t.

Mostly, I’m glad we have people like Mary Ann Dunwell in the state, and anonymous writers like MT Cowgirl/Boy that will run her musings.

These people can’t win.

They’re losers.

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Gettin’ Close to Rock Bottom

9/26/2017

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Clockwise from upper-right: Pelosi, Schumer, Trump, Webb, Meagher, Keenan, Dale-Riddle, Bolger

Football players did what Democrats could not.

They stood up to Trump…or more appropriately, they took a knee.

Once again Trump’s insecurity got the best of him. Each morning before dawn he takes to Twitter, his mind abuzz from the previous night’s insecure dreams.

Our NFL players (or more appropriately, their owners) know the emperor has no clothes. Few others in the country do.

I’m continually amazed at how scared people are of Trump!

Mostly these are highly-paid politicians, the same that augment that pay with corporate bribes (campaign contributions).

They quake at the knees when Trump speaks, or calls them out, or gets on the ol’ Twitter.

They have no spines.

And Americans have no respect for them because of it.

It’s on either side of the aisle, too – both Dems and Republicans are scared shitless of being called-out by Trump.

They just don’t realize the emperor has no clothes…and never will.

One day the country will stand up to Trump like our football players did. Eventually we’ll ignore him, let him see-out his term, and then we’ll be done with him.

But it’ll take a good hitting of rock bottom before we see that happen.

And we’re a long way from that happening.

What a Time

I got my October 2 issue of Time magazine in the mail yesterday. You saw the cover in the image at the top of this post.

The cover says “Shrunk: Democrats are in their worst shape since 1929. Can anything save them?”

The article itself is called “The Democrats’ Dilemmas: A divided Party debates its future.”

Let me give you a little sample:

“Now, eight months into the Trump presidency, the party looks to face its toughest odds since Ronald Reagan won 49 states in 1984. The Democrats are in their deepest congressional rut since the class of 1946 was elected, and hold the fewest governors’ mansions – 15 – since 1922. Of the 98 partisan legislatures in the U.S., Republicans control 67. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Democrats lost 970 seats in state legislatures, leaving the party’s bench almost bare. The median age of their congressional leadership is 67, and many of the obvious early presidential front runners will be in their 70s by the 2020 election.”

What is National’s role in all this?

According to Time:

“The DNC has been hollowed out, first by Obama’s neglect and then by a Clinton campaign that raided its talent. Now it is trying to play catch-up, sending $10,000 a month to each state party to help add bodies and channel activists’ energy into permanent organizations. But the party is still $3.5 million in the red, and Republicans are outraising it by a margin of roughly 2 to 1.”

We see this in Montana, the shuffling of staffers from New York to our state. It’s not to benefit us – it’s to train them so maybe one day they can help an ‘important’ state…i.e., one that can raise lots of money for its candidates, and the DNC.

Let’s get into the money.

Montana Dem Pay

The Montana Democratic Party has a 160-page September FEC campaign finance report.

The Party had $276,000 cash on hand at the beginning of last month, they brought in $89,000, they spent $85,000 and they had $281,000 cash on hand at the end of the month.

The Montana Democratic Party also spent $2,635 on eating out in August.

It cost the Montana Dems $3,900 to rent their August convention space at the Colonial in Helena. This was the convention that selected the same, tired old ‘leaders’ that gave us our terrible Party situation.

They spent at least $750 to pay three people for “entertainment” at that event.

They spent $146 for an Uber ride in California.

12 staffers were paid $34,482.91 for their ‘work.’ This breaks down like so:

Nancy Keenan: $5,922
Chris Meagher: $4,732
Trent Bolger: $4,453
Allison Dale-Riddle: $3,540
Roy Lowenstein: $3,214
Justin Ailport: $3,078
Nick Lockridge: $2,986
James Young: $2,243
Thomas Culver: $2,037
Olivia Slack: $1,090
Faith Scow: $1,040
James Oberembt: $142

An additional $48,493.10 was paid in payroll taxes for those employees.

That means it cost the Montana Democratic Party $82,976 just to pay the people on staff. It also means they only had about $6,000 left of the $89,000 they raised for the month.

Folks, it’s called treading water – the Montana Democratic Party needs to raise at least $80,000 a month just to keep the current staffers paid.

When you add in voter access networks, maintenance costs, printing, mailing, and other stuff, you realize the Party needs $100,000 of your money each month just to keep going.

$1.2 million a year, just to maintain the current status quo of a lost legislature, a lost land board, and a dusty bench that holds no excitement for Montana voters of either Party.

What a mess.

Montana Republican Pay

The Montana Republican Party has a 28-page FEC finance report this month.

The Party had $82,000 cash on hand at the beginning of August, they brought in $13,000, spent $34,000 and had $62,000 cash on hand at the end of the month.

Someone spent nearly $600 to fly to Atlanta.

Fulcrum Campaign Strategies, located in the District of Criminals, was given $5,000 for political strategy consulting.

Over $400 was spent to stay in Nashville for a night.

H2 Capital Consulting, located in the District of Criminals, was given nearly $14,000 as a reimbursement.

The same amount was given to a Virginia catering company, again, as a reimbursement.

Florida’s Steve Brown Direct Marketing was given nearly $1,900 for fundraising.

The Party has a $10,000 debt to Minnesota’s Strategic Fundraising.

When we get to staffers, we see that just one is listed: Patrick Web. He was paid $2,014 for the month, and the GOP paid $3,618 in payroll taxes for the month.

This means that the GOP is paying just $5,600 a month for its staff while the Dems pay $83,000.

The GOP’s fundraising might seem low compared to the Dems, but the truth is they just don’t need to raise so much money because they’re not wasting so much.

And they’re winning.

In July, Patrick Webb was named the executive director of the Montana GOP. He started working on August 2.

Webb worked for Daines some time ago, he worked for Gianforte last year, and he even put in some time on Zinke’s campaign.

Dems need 12 staffers for each staffer the GOP has, and they still can’t win.

It’s sad. I do have to congratulate the Montana GOP on doing such a good job with so little. Dems could learn from this, but they choose not to.

Conclusion

The Montana Democrats had their worst showing in statewide elections since 1928.

Time magazine mentions that Democrats haven’t been in such a terrible position since 1929.

And we know how that turned out – the worst economic collapse in our nation’s history, and the ushering in of a Democrat for 4 terms.

I just don’t think that state Democratic Parties were raiding the cookie jar as much back then as they are now.

You saw the numbers – Montana Dems’ whole operation is about benefiting a dozen people…and they have no concrete wins to show for this.

So even if things go to hell and a Dem gets elected president in 2020, we know they’ll just be a corrupt, Party hack that seeks to enrich themselves with your money while trying to trick you that your life is getting better.

That’s what the Montana Democratic Party is doing…the money says so.

It’s just corruption, and an attitude of ‘I’ll benefit myself as the ship goes down.’

These people aren’t leaders.

If they were ever to assume a leadership position, your life would get worse while theirs gets better.

NFL players are a fine example. Their average salary is $1.5 million a year. Easy to take a knee or make a stand when you’ve got money in the bank.

It’s harder for you and I to do so, being just regular citizens will menial jobs and little money in the pocket.

And yet we look to these highly-paid people to tell us what to do, what to think.

Whether it’s a president that’s more insecure than a pimply-faced teenager…whether it’s a state Party that uses most of its donations to prop up its own staff…whether it’s a bunch of football players that make more for a couple months of work than you will in your whole life…things are bad.

They’re not going to get better.

We simply don’t want them to.

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Bullock’s Brinksmanship

9/25/2017

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Montana Governor Steve Bullock is using the state’s most vulnerable people to get his way politically.

Montana Democrats have fallen into line behind this terrible strategy.

Montana Republicans aren’t buying into it, however.

Let’s discuss.

Today on the Flathead Beacon there was an article called Governor: Budget Cuts Will ‘Hurt’ Montana Residents.

The subtitle is “without a fix, budget shortfall will lead to cuts to essential services and send shockwaves throughout the state.”

What Bullock is doing here is ratcheting up the fear-levels so that he – however improbable it may seem – can get his way.

“Montana residents can expect devastating losses to essential services,” we’re told, which is our first lie.

My family won’t be affected at all. My neighbors won’t be affected. In fact, most of the people in my area of town won’t be affected.

A more accurate sentence would have been some Montana residents will be affected, but not most. In fact, it’ll be a very small minority of Montana’s population that’s affected.

Bullock’s only goal is to “generate some additional revenue” to tackle this problem. He in no way wants to cut spending.

That’s a shame…as there are tons of ways to save a few bucks here and there. Just look at Montana’s non-essential spending!

Two years ago I put up an article called What is Montana Spending Its Money On?

One of the interesting things is that Montana is spending (or was in 2013), over $1.9 billion on “other funds.”

Some areas of “other funds” that can be cut include:

Economic Development
Environmental Projects
Parks and Recreation
Housing
Aid to Local Governments

I feel those areas can and should be cut for a very simple reason – people’s lives aren’t on the line.

If we spent a little less on marketing the state to potential tourists, we’d have enough money to keep old people in their state-run nursing homes.

If we spent a little less on fixing up our parks, we’d have enough money to ensure sick or abused kids can get the help they need.

If we spent a little less on our environmental projects, we’d have enough money to help people struggling with drugs and mental illness.

But we choose not to do this.

Bullock chooses not to do this.

What Bullock wants to do is tax cigarettes more, tax wine more, tax medical marijuana more, tax hotel beds more, and tax rich people more who are making over $500,000 a year.

Bullock claims that these new taxes will “bring in millions of dollars in new revenue.”

Sadly for Bullock, majority Republicans in the legislature “have flatly rejected” Bullock’s proposals.

So that leaves us at a stalemate, and one Bullock won’t be able to overcome politically. For one thing, the man simply doesn’t have the negotiating skills or the business acumen to make deals.

That means he’ll order state agencies to cut nearly $230 million from their budgets, as he’ll have no other choice – the GOP legislature simply won’t play ball.

And why should they?

Just like my family and my neighbors, none of them will be affected by these spending cuts. A big reason for that is those Republicans spent much of their lives getting up each morning, going to work, following the rules of society, and as a result, they’re able to take care of themselves and their family.

A very small minority of Montanans chose not to do those things, and now the state has to take care of them with the money you pay in taxes.

Then there are the state workers that are set to lose their jobs.

Again, this doesn’t matter to you.

If you’re like me, you probably work in the private sector…you know, an area of the economy where they actually expect results.

We don’t get retirement or healthcare or holidays off.

We work in the real world, and many of those Helena bureaucrats are about to join us.

Remember, between 2004 and 2011, Montana added 1,000 full-time employees. And my do those state workers do well for themselves – average salaries jumped from $35,000 to $44,000 over the same period of time.

But that’s not quite accurate. Throw in healthcare and you’ll see that the average compensation for state workers went from $47,000 to $61,000 a year.

Now…let’s compare Montana state employee counts by agency over a few years.

When Governor Marc Racicot left office in 2001, state agencies were funded at the following levels:

Administration: $3.75 million
Agriculture: $8 million
Commerce: $48 million
Corrections: $93.7 million
Environmental Quality: $37.8 million
Fish, Wildlife and Parks: $43.6 million
Labor: $51 million
Natural Resource and Conservation: $30.8 million
Public Health and Human Services: $766.8 million
Revenue: $30 million
Transportation: $460 million

The number of employees each department had at the end of Racicot’s time in office was like so:

Administration: 416
Agriculture: 110
Commerce: 388
Corrections: 1,025
Environmental Quality: 349
Fish, Wildlife and Parks: 570
Labor: 635
Natural Resource and Conservation: 500
Public Health and Human Services: 2,697
Revenue: 650
Transportation: 2,000

That comes out to 9,340 workers for those 11 agencies.

Now let’s fast-forward 10 years to 2010.

Administration: 155
Agriculture: 120
Commerce: 52
Corrections: 1,306
Environmental Quality: 387
Fish, Wildlife and Parks: 696
Labor: 755
Natural Resource and Conservation: 557
Public Health and Human Services: 2,942
Revenue: 666
Transportation: 2,113

That comes out to 9,749 workers…and increase of 409 workers.

And of course, state employee counts have only gone up in the 7 years since then. For instance, Corrections has a $209 million budget for 2018 and they had 1,400 employees in 2017.

If we stick with our earlier numbers, however, we see that from 2000 to 2010, Montana increased its employee count for those 11 agencies by 409 workers.

Sure, some agencies saw substantial drops – Admin went from 416 workers down to 155 while Commerce went from 388 to 52.

Still, we added 409 workers and on the low-end that costs the state $19.2 million a year, and on the high-end $24.9 million.

Let’s not even get into the payroll taxes that each of those employee requires, either. That’d probably double those amounts.

So by cutting the 409 workers we added over 10 years, the state could save upwards of $50 million.

Would you rather tell a state bureaucrat that they have to find a new job, or would you rather tell a frail and immobile senior citizen that they have to find a new place to live?

Montana is a boom-and-bust state. Hard choices are required for those that decided to live out those cycles.

Conclusion

Bullock want’s brinksmanship. He wants his way. He wants tax increases. He doesn’t want to negotiate.

Republicans in the legislature are content to sit on their hands and do nothing. They know Bullock is a lame duck with more national ambitions than concern for his state. They know they’ll win reelection easily.

Meanwhile tons of innocent and abused and low-income folks are in the crossfire.

The state could take a hard look at its finances, but it chooses not to. Sure, on October 4 we’ll have some agency numbers and a clearer idea of where cuts will happen.

But the state continues to waste money in many, many areas…and that money adds up.

Take Print Services. They spend about $30,000 to $40,000 a year to print up a state agency phonebook. Schweitzer had cut this out of their budget, but now it’s been added back.

State workers are just too damn lazy to look up a phone number on the computer – they need to waste paper and money so they can have an ‘easier’ time at work.

And because of their choices, old people will have to live on the street and abused kids will have to keep living at home.

That’s how important that state phone book is. There are dozens if not hundreds of examples in the state budget that are just like that.

But why roll up the sleeves and take the fine-toothed comb and find those problem areas and cut them?

Because then you can’t point fingers.

We’ll see a lot of finger-pointing over the coming weeks, and more if we decide to waste tens of thousands of dollars on a special session that’ll accomplish nothing.

Meanwhile, I don’t think much in your life will change.

Boom-and-bust in Montana. If you were here in the 1980s, you saw it a lot worse than this. And you also know that we’ll pull through it.

Until then, be smart. Pinch your pennies, eat leftovers, and stay home more. Now’s the time to save money, not spend it.

Be smart – you live in Montana.

Additional Notes

Edwards, Paul. “What about Racicot’s legacy?” Great Falls Tribune. May 2000.

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Tell It Like It Is

9/21/2017

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Wow, lots to discuss today!

Let’s get started.

Hunting for Gianforte

One interesting story is how Martin Kidston embarrassed himself with his ‘investigative journalism’ this week.

Perhaps you saw it on Missoula Current.

Kidston – former reporter for the Missoulian and former Communications Director for the Montana Democratic Party – thought it’d be fun to hound Gianforte’s staffers.

You see, he heard Gianforte was in Missoula…but gosh darn, wouldn’t you know it – no one contacted Martin!

What the hell were they thinking?!?

He is a blogger, after all.

Oh…that’s right – 'here’s a Democrat that has nothing good to say about us, has never had anything good to say about us, so really…fuck him!'

I think the problem is that Martin is used to having Tester call him up and say, “Yep, I’ll be in town. Do another one of those good write-ups that talks-up my accomplishments, eh?”

And Martin falls right in line, doing what the Dem brass wants.

Remember, Martin is a real reporter.

You know this because he removed the ability to comment on his site, and he’s also ensured that certain people (namely me) can’t comment on his site’s Facebook posts, either.

Why is that?

Simple – I threaten him.

What I say threatens him.

Oh, he can say that he just disagrees with it, or that I’m a troll, or that he just doesn’t want comments on his site.

Again, the base reason for all those reasons is because he’s threatened.

What I say bothers him, and sometimes he thinks I’m even out to get him…when I just view what I’m doing as a useful service to the community.

Martin, now you know how Gianforte feels about you.

I’ve got a little message for both Martin and Gianforte, and perhaps even Gianforte’s staff:

Who gives a fuck?

For Gianforte…Martin and others like him continuously attack you, but they can’t win elections. You can. None of their attacks stick, none of their talking points matter, and none of their get-out-the-vote efforts amount to anything. This angers and frustrates them, and causes their attacks to increase. They win even less as a result.

For Martin – Gianforte and others like him view you as flies on their arm: nuisances to be brushed off and quickly forgotten. You ad hominem attacks and schoolboy antics – far from helping your cause – actually do more to hurt it. But maybe that would only be true if anyone actually read what you wrote. Sure, 100-200 Facebook likes is pretty impressive…but that doesn’t mean people read what you wrote, visited your site, or voted for the person that you wanted. ‘Pissing in the wind’ is a phrase that comes to mind.

Wind and piss – two things that have never been in short supply in the Treasure State.

The Hill Crusade

I see that Missoula legislator, Ellie Boldman-Hill, has filed a campaign finance complaint against Missoula mayoral candidate, Lisa Triepke.

The reason?

Triepke failed to mention what exactly the $11,000 she paid Spiker Communications for “advertising” is really for.

I mean…how many yard signs does that get you?

That seems to be the big contention – the number and size and cost of the yard signs was not listed.

This is a really big problem in your life, ain’t it?

Oh, don’t be surprised – that’s what Democrats focus on…’problems’ that have nothing to do with you, but everything to do with their particular worldview.

In this case, Hill supports Mayor John Engen and doesn’t want to see him lose.

In fact, I think she’s scared he will lose.

I mean…why else file an election complaint? If the Engen team felt they had the cat in the bag on this one, then hell, they wouldn’t feel worried.

But they are worried.

And I don’t blame ‘em.

Taxes up 95% since Engen took office, city debt at a $250 million level, and young people forced to leave town because there are no good jobs here.

Hill has a good job – a taxpayer-funded job with benefits and another job as a $100-$300/hour lawyer.

Engen has a good job – he’s seen to that by boosting his own pay from the $60,000-level to the $100,000-level (plus he gets benefits and free car to drive around in…which he’s admitted to driving around drunk in).

Hill’s worried that if Triepke is elected, she won’t have a sugar daddy around to give her a cushy city job/appointment.

Remember, Hill’s time in the legislature is done. A clone-copy of her will serve in 2019, however, as Missoula’s City Councilor, Marilyn Marler, has been chosen to fill her seat in the 2018 election.

Trust me – Marler will take that seat easily.

And that’s a big reason I’m thankful the GOP controls the Montana Legislature – people like Marler won’t be able to get their way.

It’ll be interesting to see where this election complaint goes, if anywhere.

The Indy has another look at it today, as well as a look at Hill’s Facebook tirade after a pro-Triepke letter was published in the Missoulian late last week.

In fact, I encourage you to read many of Hill’s posts – you’ll realize how normal you are compared to Missoula Democrats.

Yes, they really are scared.

They’re scared they won’t be able to bilk common citizens anymore to prop up their extravagant lifestyles. They’re scared they’ll have to go out and actually get – God forbid! – a real job.

I don’t feel that the majority of Missoulians actually care about this issue that Hill brings up (again, a couple hundred likes on Facebook from people that already agree with you isn't a majority...it's a bubble). What they do care about is the money in their pocket, and how much the city is taking from them.

Hill feels that her small minorities will carry her and her chosen one through. She’s so blind to reality that she doesn’t see the pent-up frustration of the silent majority.

She doesn’t want to.

I’m looking forward to voting here in a couple weeks, and you know it won’t be for Engen or his cabal.

Hill’s complaint is another example of the Democratic Machine in action here in Missoula. God it makes me sick.

These Guys Can’t Win

Please, please God…let some viable candidates come forward to run against Gianforte.

Grant Kier is not a viable candidate.

John Heenan is not a viable candidate.

These are run-of-the-mill candidates that’ll continue the 20-year losing streak by getting about 38% to 42% of the vote.

There is nothing inspiring about these two men…or anyone else that might have expressed interest in this race.

Hell, Kier made over $92,000 as director of a 'nonprofit' in 2015. He doesn't know what the everyday realities and problems are for regular people. He's upper-class.

Oh, and by the way – money does not make someone interesting. You can have $10 million in your campaign war chest, but why should I care?

Why should young people care about voting for these two men?

Why should Independents or swing voters care about voting for these two men?

Why should seniors on fixed incomes with no cost of living increase care about voting for these two men?

If the only reason I should care about voting for them is because they have a ‘D’ behind their name and they didn’t assault a reporter, then good luck with that.

Gianforte will skate into his second-term, and he’ll have another two years to coddle fundraisers and PACs to get his third.

Wake up, Democrats.

No one cares about you or your message or the boring people you throw out at us.

Lawyers and land trust execs?

Give me break.

I fully expect the Dems will totter along with one of these fools carrying their banner next year. And my God will they lose because of it.

**What’s the Cause of the Problem**

Finally…I would have liked to dig into Tim Fox’s 87-page report on substance abuse, but I can’t.

He put the report up this week to much fanfare in the media. Then he took the report down, to less fanfare.

That’s what ‘404’ errors mean – that page no longer exists.

Tim Fox…gosh darn, what's up?!?

And that would have been the end of it except that Eric Sell, Tim Fox’s Communication’s Director, is very fast on Twitter.

He gave me the new link to that report (the old link was in the Flathead Beacon story about the report).

Right on the first page of the report, Fox tells us that there’s been a:

559% increase in drug offenses since 1980
57% of all 2015 drug offenses were due to marijuana
31% of all 2015 drug offenses were due to meth
7% of all 2015 drug offenses were due to “other narcotics”
40% of all adult felony convictions are for drugs or DUIs

We’re also told that heroin use in Montana had gone up by 1,557% from 2010-2015.

Wow!

For that last one, we know the real problem – drug companies pushing legal opium onto the masses, and when those prescriptions dry up, it’s time to open the veins to heroin.

And how about all that time and money wasted on pot when a few hundred miles to the west or south of us it's legal and they've filled their budgetary holes with the tax revenues it's created?

In Montana, you just can't fix stupid, and the DOJ is pretty damn stupid (Governor's Office and the Legislature are right up there with 'em, however).

You know this.

I lamented back in February, and I lamented on the Flathead Beacon article about this report:

Fox is good at identifying symptoms of the problem, but he can’t identify the problem.

Maybe it’s just his justice-viewpoint. But to me…why are people using drugs?

Why are people taking meth and heroin?

Those are hard drugs. Even with pot and alcohol, though…is it more than just trying to relax after a hard day?

Do we need these drugs every day, all day, just to cope?

And if so…why?

What is the larger reason that people are seeking out drugs?

Fox does not get into that in his 87-page report, and that’s why I know Montana will only see its drug problem increase.

It’s because the problems that are forcing people to turn to drugs keep increasing.

What are those problems?

I think they’re money- and job-related, myself. People don’t have hope. No matter how hard they work, they can’t get ahead. They’re always afraid of getting hurt or sick. There is no retirement for them. The future is bleak, and the now is even bleaker.

No, I don’t think this report addresses the base problems at all, just the symptoms of those problems, which is drug use.

We’ll always be chasing our tail. It’s very sad.

Good luck, Tim Fox…you’re gonna need it.

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Frustrated Voters in Missoula Speak Up

9/19/2017

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$4 million for this bridge

Today I went on KGVO News Talk radio to discuss my Ward 4 City Council race.

As you know, Missoula’s Ward 4 has four candidates.

Just three of them showed up to talk today – Ramos, Wilkins, and myself.

I don’t know why Chris Badgley didn’t show up. Maybe he had to work, or maybe he follows a long-standing Democratic habit of not appearing on KGVO.

The station is a bit right-leaning, and Badgley did get the Missoula Democratic Party’s endorsement.

Alas, Badgley still doesn’t have a single yard sign up…though I think he had the design sent to the printers on September 6, and they should be done 2 weeks from that date.

So we’ll see them soon.

You’ll be seeing a few more of my signs, too. Just yesterday I had someone contact me because of my website, and today they helped me put up 4 more yard signs.

Now I have 6 of my 10 put up. I’ll buy some more metal stakes for the rest, and if I need to, I’ll get more printed up.

I really need to get back on the doors, and tonight might be a good one for it…if it’s not raining.

If I find 5 to 10 more homes that want signs, I’ll inject more of my own money into my campaign to get that done.

At this point I only really need about $70 to do that, so it’s not too bad. Remember, I don’t raise a lot of money when I run for office. I don’t know that many people so it’s hard to do. I don’t send out a lot of letters or emails to people asking for money, either.

So I have to work with what I have.

And that’s my big message to government – work with what you have!

It’s frustrating at both the local and the state level right now.

At the local level, the city keeps raising taxes so it can maintain the same (or greater) level of spending that it’s grown accustomed to.

At the local level, the state doesn’t have money because firefighting costs spiraled out of control, and now they have to cut essential services and the number of state employees.

We’re continually told not to compare government spending with household spending.

We must end this terrible line of thinking.

In my household, if I don’t have enough money I can do one of two things:

Raise my income by getting another source of revenue, typically another job;
Or…cut my household spending.

Those cuts aren’t easy, and many will come from essential things my family needs. Still, I can usually live with 75% of something essential.

It’s called cutting back.

So this week I buy 75% of the groceries I bought last week. Yes, eating is essential…but it is an area I can cut back on and still survive.

I can also lower the thermostat. If I get cold, I can put on more sweaters.

I can drive less when I’m not working, thus saving on gas and its costs.

I can eat out less (something we rarely do in my household) and I can go to the movies less, shop less, buy fewer clothes, drink less, smoke less…you name it.

If you have a household budget, these areas are easy to pinpoint and shave.

It’s called doing an audit. Our governments desperately need to do them more.

Back in Missoula, last night the city approved $1.6 million in new spending.

That comes to $1.3 million in accounts payable, $285,000 for a wastewater facility plan, and $33,000 for a community bike park design.

Maybe some of those things are essential…but all of them?

When people on fixed incomes keep seeing tax increases, and when people working hard at one or more jobs can’t afford their mortgage and the taxes on their home…then what are we going to do?

The city’s answer is to increase their taxes more.

My answer is to dig into the budget, find out what those $37 million worth of miscellaneous expenses are exactly, and begin cutting.

We can get next year’s tax increase from 4% to 1% and hopefully the year after that there’s a 0% increase or even a 1% decrease.

I feel this can be done even with the monumental water company purchase…if we just count our pennies.

Households do it all the time. It’s time for city government to do so also.

Remember, the net position of total primary government finances in 2007 was $11.9 million but in 2016 it was negative $2.7 million.

In 2007 our expenses were $47 million a year but last year they were $78 million.

In 2007 the cost of general government was $5.7 million, last year it was $10.8 million.

In 2007 the discrepancy between the city’s income and expenses was $21 million, in 2016 it was $78 million.

In 2007 the assessed value of all Missoula’s properties was $2.9 billion, and last year it was $7.3 billion.

If your property has more value, you get taxed more.

I think it’s clear we’re moving in the wrong direction, and at an alarming pace. In some instances, our costs have doubled.

Why?

What do we have to show for that?

Is your life better as a result, or are you struggling more now than ever?

Maybe you're not struggling. Maybe it’s that each year your tax bills go up, but your income doesn’t match it.

Really hits the savings, doesn’t it?

Makes it harder to take that vacation.

Even spending more in the local economy can become burdensome.

The city’s answer?

Raise your taxes more.

I think people are sick of it, and this might be the year for change. It will be if you vote. Please vote for Lisa Triepke for mayor. Please vote for Greg Strandberg for Ward 4.

Please do so in our mail-in-only election, which starts in about 3 weeks.

Thanks for your support!

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Incoming Thoughts

9/17/2017

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I worked for 10 hours yesterday between 2 jobs.

The first job paid me $8.25 an hour and the second job was $8.15.

I’m not going to complain too much – the jobs are the easy, ‘stand-around’ types.

But still…that only comes out to $79.50 for those 10 hours of work…and less when you take out the taxes

If I worked those 10 hours 4 times a week, I’d make $318 and for the month I’d be making $1,272.

We know the living wage for a single adult is pegged at $13.21 an hour.

That comes out to $528 a week or $2,112 a month…or about $840 more a month that I’m making with the two jobs I pointed out.

But hold on – that living wage is for California. If you go by this calculator you find that Missoula’s living wage is just $11.07 an hour.

That’d still mean I’m coming up $341 a month short.

FYI…Billings’ living wage is listed as $10.19, Great Falls’ is $10.22, Flathead County is $10.05, and Lewis and Clark County is $11.12.

Now…this is just an example.

Both of those jobs I mentioned get me about 35 to 40 hours a month…if even that. They’re part-time jobs, and were advertised as such.

I didn’t expect to make a living with them, nor do I expect to in the future.

Once again, I just want to use my platform to tell you how hard it is to get by in America today.

I think all of our social and political problems stem from this.

In 2014 Pew Research told us that “For most workers, real wages have barely budged for decades.”

“But after adjusting for inflation, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power as it did in 1979, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms the average wage peaked more than 40 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 has the same purchasing power as $22.41 would today.”

I personally don’t know anyone that’s making $22.41 an hour here in Missoula.

I know of people that are making that much – some lawyers, politicians, doctors and even plumbers. You know…skilled trades.

Um…maybe we should exclude politicians from that ‘skilled trades’ category, eh?

That’s one of the biggest frustrations – no matter if it’s a D or an R…our wages haven’t gone up since the end of the Carter administration.

Another big problem were the 1986 tax rewrites put forth by Reagan and Senate Republicans, and supported by House Democrats.

This 1986 Tax Reform Act – the second of Reagan’s major tax reforms, the first having come in 1981 – wiped-away the gap between what workers and what investors paid in taxes.

It’s why today, billionaires pay the same marginal tax rate as someone making $40,000 a year.

And then there are the unions.

Just last month we were told that 16 million Americans belong to a union.

The Economic Policy Institute put out the report and told us that “union decline can explain one-third of the rise in wage inequality among men and one-fifth of the rise in wage inequality among women from 1973 to 2007.”

Just 9% of manufacturing workers now have union backing.

So we have a situation where rich people no longer pay as much in taxes as they used to, and workers don’t either.

Rich people manipulated politicians into doing their bidding, and that’s how they got their way.

Workers got screwed by losing jobs, losing union representation, and making less money as a result…which in turn paid Uncle Sam less money in taxes.

Back in 1979 – the year our wages went stagnant – our national debt was $827 billion. Today it’s $20.1 trillion.

In 1979 the federal government was spending $504 billion on things. In 2016 we spent $3.8 trillion.

Maybe employers would be able to pay workers more if they had more of their tax money and the government didn’t have it.

With big corporations, I think they have the money to pay workers more now.

But small businesses, like the one I worked for last night? I don’t really think so.

Maybe if they had a few extra thousand dollars a month, they could. Maybe if they didn’t have to pay an equal amount of payroll taxes to match each worker’s wage, they’d also be doing better.

Or maybe the best result will come from reducing taxes on the rich further, while decreasing worker wages further.

That works really well for 1% of this country, but it doesn’t help the 99% of us.

And it could be that there’s a painfully obvious result I’m totally missing.

Feel free to throw out your ideas, though I don’t think you or many others will.

I don’t think most of us have any ideas about what to do about this…and even if we did, there is no political will to carry them out.

Like I said – it’s frustrating.

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Famous Montana Celebrities #9

9/15/2017

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Montana has lots of famous people.

Some were born here, some came later.

Some had to leave to get famous; others came here as fame was upon them…and sometimes fading away.

Please remember that there’s an alphabetical listing of 50 famous Montana celebrities in this post.

Now, let’s add a few more.

Julia Roberts

Julia and Keifer in '91

I got this comment on one of my famous people articles last summer:

“Julia Roberts owns a house in kalispell mt she was here last summer,” meaning the summer of 2015

I think the house is closer to Whitefish, actually, and I don’t think she owns it…or any other homes in Montana (but I could be wrong on that last part).

You see, in February 2016, that lake house sold for $12 million.

It was built by Roberts’ fiancé, Kiefer Sutherland, in 1990 and called Goldenbear Ranch.

The address is 3500 E. Lakeshore Drive.

It had 5 bedrooms, a wine cellar, gym, and even a nine-hole folf course on the 5.5-acre property. There’s also a 2,200 square-foot guesthouse with 2 bedrooms.

Julia Roberts' old home in Whitefish

I don’t think Roberts spent much time in the place, as she called the wedding off in 1991…just 3 days before the June 14 wedding date, in fact.

She was 23 and Sutherland was 24.

The young starlet had a friend call Sutherland up to deliver the bad news. A couple days later she jetted off to Ireland with new fling – and Sutherland friend – Jason Patric.

It wasn’t the first time this runaway bride had pulled the stunt – she’d left Dylan McDermott in 1990 to be with Sutherland.

Nicolette Larson

Larson, c. 1978

One Montana celebrity that you might not have heard of much is Nicolette Larson.

She teamed-up with Neil Young in the 1970s, and covered his #1 hit, “Lotta Love,” a song which you probably hear her singing more than him.

Here it is:

I have to admit, I had no idea this great singer of this great song was born in Helena in 1952.

She didn’t stay too long in the Queen City, as her father worked for the U.S. Treasury Department and they had to move a lot.

Larson finished up high school in Missouri, and did a year and a half of university there before heading to San Francisco to pursue her musical dreams.

By 1975 she was doing a lot of work, mainly with Commander Cody, but then with Emmylou Harris in ’77. Her friendship with Linda Ronstadt got her introduced to Neil Young, and she sang on some tracks for him.

She got her own debut album in 1978, Nicolette, and that year Rolling Stone magazine called her the Female Vocalist of 1978.

She never really broke it big, however, and her last album was in 1988. She died in 1997 at the age of 45 from liver failure.

Bill Pullman

Bill Pullman has been in more than 50 movies or TV shows since making his film debut in 1986.

He first came to the state after college. This would have been the late-70s, maybe early-80s…even before he got into the movie business.

Pullman has a place on Highway 69 between Boulder and Whitehall, one he’s owned with his brother since the 1990s.

At one point, Pullman refurbished a barn into a house. One commenter on this site mentioned that they knew the family that lived on the place and took care of it while he was gone.

The same person said that Pullman sometimes came into Boulder to eat breakfasts, but usually didn’t take his family.

Another commenter said that Pullman had sold his place in Whitehall and moved to upstate New York. She mentioned that Pullman’s brother, John Pullman, is an infectious disease doctor in Butte and that he saved her husband's life. “Smart guy and unpretentious,” she adds.

So does he still live here or not?

Bill Pullman Montana Ranch...somewhere around here

In this 2016 MT Standard article he’s listed as living outside Cardwell and that he has “family who live in the area.”

You can also see him with Monica Lindeen in this 2016 Ravalli Republic article on a fraud documentary.

In this March 2017 YouTube video, Pullman discusses how he still has cows and horses, and how his sister’s “really the straw boss” and he has a “neo-western, where the woman’s running the ranch now.”

So it sounds like he’s still in Montana often and that he enjoys it here.

Hits & Misses

I hear about a lot of celebs in Montana, but I’m not sure they’re all living here.

Maybe they’re just visiting, or maybe people have some mistaken information.

Or maybe I’m wrong and these celebs are great at keeping it on the down-low.

Let’s go through a few.

Tom Selleck

Supposedly Tom Selleck has a large stone house on the Missouri River between Craig and Cascade.

I’ve also been told that Tom Selleck may have an ownership interest in a place called Packer’s Roost in Coram, Montana.

That’s interesting, as Coram is about 240 miles and a 3-to-4-hour-drive from where Selleck supposedly has his home.

I can find nothing on Selleck living in Montana, or ever having lived here. He seems to have the ranch in California and that’s as much as I know.

Tom Selleck's Montana Home? Maybe...but probably not

Lucille Ball

I’ve heard a few times now that Lucy was actually from Butte, not the hometown that’s listed for her in many places, Celeron, New York (Wikipedia lists Jamestown, New York).

I can’t find much on this Montana connection.

Caroll O'Conner

Caroll O'Conner lived in the University area for years. He got a degree in journalism from UM in 1956, working at the Kaimin as an editor while doing so.

O’Connor’s wife, Nancy, grew up in Montana and they had a home in Missoula for years. In 1999 the two gave $1 million to UM.

In 2000, the 75-year-old O’Connor taught a screenwriting class at UM. He had to turn down a couple movie parts to do so.

“It’s now or never,” he told local reporters. O’Connor died the following year.

3 Comments

Baby, Please Don't Go

9/14/2017

1 Comment

Intelligent Discontent/The Montana Post is offline.

Has the site been taken down?

Or is this just a temporary hiccup?

Considering the fact that the site has been posting for a decade, I find it hard to believe that they'd all of a sudden shut down.

I don't want them to shut down.

Oh, I don't agree with most of what I say...but I appreciate their viewpoint and their civic engagement

When we lose a powerful Montana voice, we all suffer.

Another powerful voice that seems to be flagging is Logicosity.

It's the best political website in the state.

I hope they post more.

I hope all of Montana's 7-8 political websites post more.

I hope new ones start up.

We need the opinions.

Both to reinforce our own ideas and to challenge them.

So here's hoping Don and Pete over at ID are doing alright.

Keep it up, guys - we disagree most of the time but I visit your site each day.

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Dissecting MT Cowgirl’s BS, Again

9/14/2017

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“You and your family will suffer as a result.”

That’s what I said in December 2015 when I put up my last ‘dissecting MT Cowgirl’ post.

Why’d I say that?

Because I’d just said this:

“The clandestine and anonymous authors of that site do more to harm the Democratic cause in Montana than anyone.

Their constant goading, blaming, and accusing of GOP legislators and others earns the enmity of the majority party in this state.”

That was 2 years ago.

Different people were in charge back then, and MT Cowgirl was the top Montana blog and one of the top Montana news sites.

Now it’s fallen to the 17th most visited news site in the state…well below mine.

People just don’t care what those anonymous writers have to say.

Alas, those writers keep putting their dross up.

I thought it’d be fun to dissect some of that dross today.

Let’s get started.

The name of the article is Guest Post: What GOP Legislators Don’t Want you to Know about MT’s Budget and Revenue.

The post was written by Lesa Reynolds, and I have no idea who that person is.

We’re told right off the bat that “the state has no money.”

We’re not told that Bullock ran on a platform of having a surplus. Remember that?

At the end of the 2015 legislature Bullock told us we had “about $300 million,” but then in September 2016 we learned that this was “$200 million below projections.”

So we had a $100 million surplus.

But Bullock wouldn’t tell you that because he was in 2016 campaign mode.

“They don’t want to go off that $300 million talking point,” Representative Osmundson said a year ago.

And he’s exactly right. Winning a second term was more important to Bullock than the state’s fiscal health.

Dan Villa – perhaps one of the worst employees in state government right now, though behind Clay Christian – crowed about Montana’s budget last year, saying the ‘surplus’ was keeping us from a special session.

“Montana has avoided a special legislative session to cut budgets, unlike neighboring states, which have seen huge decreases in oil-and-gas revenue.”

That was a year ago.

9 days ago Bullock was blaming that $200 million surplus loss on the Republicans, saying that “the budget approved by the GOP-majority Legislature was based on ‘unrealistic revenue projections.’”

Ahem…Governor, if the revenue projections were unrealistic…then why’d you sign-off on them?

When we come back to MT Cowgirl we find that the blame isn’t assigned to the current legislature, but past legislatures.

“…the GOP has been cutting or eliminating taxes at every turn, but never more so than when they last controlled two of the three branches of government, in 2003.”

Wow, we’ve got to go back 14 years now for MT Cowgirl to make their point.

Those were the Judy Martz days.

Remember Judy?

Martz was 52-years-old in March 1996 when the 47-year-old Racicot tapped her to join him on the campaign trail as his second-term running mate. She’d been a field representative for Senator Conrad Burns in the Democratic stronghold city of Butte, where she and her husband owned a garbage disposal business, Martz Disposal Service.

By that point Racicot had raised $233,000 for his campaign while his Republican primary challenger – University of Montana law professor, Rob Natelson – had raised just $45,000.

And we know how that turned out.

By January 2001, the legislature estimated that Montana had lost 632 jobs to deregulation: 320 from Montana Resources in Butte, 290 from Columbia Falls Aluminum Plant, 15 from Anderson Steel in Butte and seven from Grey Mount Mine in Townsend

The Berkeley Pit actually shut down.

Since their electricity contract expired, their rates were set to jump from $35 to $625 a megawatt hour. One megawatt hour could power 240-300 homes. According to mine manager Ray Tilman, the company would lose $3.1 million a month if operations continued.

That’s what Marc Racicot gave us, and that’s the reality Judy Martz had to deal with during her one term. She was from Butte and her boss's policies hurt Butte.

She dealt with that reality by cutting taxes for rich people like her.

“Nearly ½ of this went to people who earn more than $500,000 a year,” Cowgirl tells us, though we’re not told where the other half went.

Montana citizens let her get away with this…though considering she had just one term, perhaps not.

One of the things that Cowgirl nails today is that the GOP believes “they must give special tax shelters to their wealthy backers in return for campaign contributions.”

This is the system we have.

It’s pay-to-play.

It’s corruption…Godless, awful, nasty corruption.

Corruption that Democratic representatives don’t bat an eyelash at because they dip their fingers in too.

For instance, Jon Tester is a darling of Cowgirl…yet the Democratic senator won’t do anything to get rid of Citizens United.

The reasons are simple – he profits from Citizens United and thinks he needs it to win his third term. Politicians don’t seek third terms to help you; it’s so they can help themselves.

The second reason is that Tester is too busy pandering to veterans (many of whom are Republican) in the hopes to getting that third term.

This despite the fact that Tester has been able to do nothing for veterans for years (wait times at VA hospitals are as long as they were when we reported the problem 3 years ago.)

Cowgirl mentions that Montana’s internet “is on par with West Virginia,” but it was Tester that brought the head of the FCC here over 2 years ago to address that very problem.

I guess nothing happened.

“The state is burning down and the fire funds are long exhausted,” Cowgirl laments.

Cowgirl is angry at this, because it means:

To cut “health care for the working poor.”
To cut “child care for the working poor.”
To cut “service for the poor with disabilities.”
To cut “nursing home care and pretty much anything else.”

Why are these cuts being made?

“Because, to Republicans, these people don’t matter.”

Cowgirl tells us that if you’re making “more than $500,000 a year,” then, “I’m sorry, you do not get to whine.”

The reason?

“These are the people who’ve been benefiting from the GOP policies.”

I can’t really blame ‘em.

If you’re making over $418,000 a year then you get taxed at a rate of 39.6%.

That means that if you make $500,000 a year…you only get to keep $305,000.

Imagine it like this – you make $100 for a night of work but your boss only gives you $60.

Where’s that other $40…and what could you have used that $40 for?

Now imagine if we were living under Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Then you’d only get $10 of that $100 you made.

So there are far more incentives for rich people to keep working today then there were when my parents were born.

The system still smacks of unfairness, however. I know we want rich people to pay more in taxes because they make more…but gosh, how do they feel?

It’s true that some make their money from spurious sources, but others work very, very hard. Most millionaires in America today are self-made, first generation millionaires.

How do they feel about forking over 40% of their earnings to the government?

I only fork-over 15% of my income…and much of that is given back to me at year-end. If you’re making $38,000 to $91,000 then you’re forking over 25%.

“What exactly is so wrong about correcting the imbalance by asking the wealthiest of the wealthy for more money…?” Cowgirl asks.

We’re not really given an answer, or succinct argument, for that question.

Instead Cowgirl declares that they’re “starting to get tired of GOP cowards hiding behind hollow straw man arguments.”

And that’s about where the article ends. As usual, we’re not given any concrete ideas or solutions for the problem, we’re just given a bunch of hot air and rigmarole.

At least someone put their name on the dross today, I have to say that much.

So what is the solution?

I asked you that yesterday, but no one ventured a response.

It’s because we don’t know.

We don’t know what to do.

Like I said yesterday, we have 3 main options:

Raise taxes on the rich
Raise taxes on everyone (sales tax)
Create new revenue sources

For that last one I mentioned marijuana, but even if we legalized today we’d see no tax revenues until at least 2019.

Personally, I’m wondering why we didn’t just let the state burn.

Weren’t most of those fires in rugged, inaccessible terrain…the kind of terrain where no one lives?

Why spend the money fighting that…and by fighting that I mean spending money to fuel aircraft and pay pilots and buy fuel retardant.

Who profits from that?

I mean…if there are no homes in the area…why fight it?

Again, who is making the money that the State of Montana desperately needs right now?

What should be painfully obvious to you is that our firefighting efforts this year yielded nothing. We spent $50 million or more to hold the line, knowing full-well that the fires would not be put out until the winter snows came.

But someone wanted to make the money that the state was paying, and they did.

Lives were lost because of this.

Someone profited.

If I was in charge I’d ground all aircraft and let it burn. When you came to me with complaints I’d direct you to your federal representatives.

Perhaps if enough of you complained, they’d care more about you than their big money backers.

Then we might get some action on global warming.

Until then, we’ll be pissing away our kids’ money each year to fight fires that are unfightable.

“The state has no money,” Cowgirl tells us.

And the state won’t have any money for some time.

Open your eyes.

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Answering Forward Montana's and MontPirg's Candidate Questions

Speaking Truth to Power

Gettin’ Close to Rock Bottom

What a Time

Montana Dem Pay

Montana Republican Pay

Conclusion

Bullock’s Brinksmanship

Conclusion

Tell It Like It Is

Hunting for Gianforte

The Hill Crusade

These Guys Can’t Win

**What’s the Cause of the Problem**

Frustrated Voters in Missoula Speak Up

Incoming Thoughts

Famous Montana Celebrities #9

Julia Roberts

Nicolette Larson

Bill Pullman

Hits & Misses

Baby, Please Don't Go

Dissecting MT Cowgirl’s BS, Again

MT Book 7

Montana Blog

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives

My MT History Books

My Montana Novels

My Montana Short Fiction

​What a Time

​Montana Dem Pay

​Montana Republican Pay

​Conclusion

​Conclusion

​ ​Hunting for Gianforte

​The Hill Crusade

​ These Guys Can’t Win

​What’s the Cause of the Problem

​ ​Julia Roberts

​Nicolette Larson

​Bill Pullman

​Hits & Misses

MT Book 7

​Montana Blog

​Popular Posts

Categories

Archives

​My MT History Books

My Montana Novels

My Montana Short Fiction

What a Time

Montana Dem Pay

Montana Republican Pay

Conclusion

Conclusion

Hunting for Gianforte

The Hill Crusade

These Guys Can’t Win

**What’s the Cause of the Problem**

Julia Roberts

Nicolette Larson

Bill Pullman

Hits & Misses

Montana Blog

Popular Posts

My MT History Books